"CHEERS"

The EPA and Industry Team Up to Protect Profits in Florida Study, Leaving Children Behind

They call it CHEERS. The "Children’s Environmental Exposure Research Study" is a cooperative agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency and the American Chemical Council. The Chemical Council will provide $2.1 million of the $9 million dollar study—the rest coming from our federal government.

But there’s nothing cheery about CHEERS. The acronym is deliberately misleading and, when examined, downright scary. This time, the government is protecting an unethical study that actually exposes children, including babies, to some of the chemical industry’s most noxious poisons. Who is the EPA protecting? The health of American children? Or the profits of American corporate interests?

Parents of children in the CHEERS study must agree to routinely spray or have pesticides sprayed inside their homes during the two-year study period, according to Chemical & Engineering News. Chemical concentrations will be measured in air, dust, and urine samples of the children, and by analyzing chemicals absorbed in clothing before and after pesticide applications.